Community Highlights: Meet Dr. Heather Moreau of Canyons Veterinary Clinic

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Heather Moreau.

Dr. Moreau, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Canyons Veterinary Clinic officially opened in the fall of 2019, although truth be told we started planning this dream way before I attended Veterinary School. I was exposed to the human medicine world for as long as I can remember, with my mother being an emergency room nurse and my father an Executive Director of senior living communities.

I’d often visit them at work or volunteer for their yearly activities with the ER continuing education department or the senior community residents. At a young age, I knew that I would work in medicine as a doctor, although as it turns out I wasn’t working with the right species!

Up until my failed acceptance into the U of U Medical School, I thought my dream was to become a plastic and reconstructive surgeon so that I could combine my love and affinity for fine arts with medicine, where I could feel good about helping people. Animals were always just ‘a hobby’ either at my grandparent’s farm, our personal pets, or our future farm in Maine. I’d never envisioned them as my full-time job, although if you asked my father, he’d tell you that he always knew I’d become a veterinarian.

Prior to veterinary school, I was a newly graduated Biology major, Med school was out, and I was looking into a job at a local vet practice. I’d realized that I wasn’t as upset as I should have been with my med school denial and that human medicine wasn’t where my heart was anymore. However, although I had a stellar resume, in terms of education, I had zero animal experience when it came to the clinic setting. By a stroke of good fortune, I happened to be a part-time assistant ski coach for The Utah Nordic Alliance and I struck up a conversation with some parents after practice, venting my frustrations about how I’d applied for so many veterinary technician jobs yet no one would hire me.

Little did I know, I had explained my situation to the right people, who happened to be close friends with a local clinic owner. This owner also happened to be a former Olympic Nordic skier, that shared many common interests! Thankfully, she was willing to give me a chance and I worked for her for 2 years prior to vet school, starting as a receptionist and working my way through the clinic until I was able to help in surgery and more technical jobs. Those 2 years would later prove to be the best experience that I could have had, in terms of better preparing me for the rigors of this profession. I truly learned what it meant not only to be a veterinarian and weather the emotional storm that comes with this job but also how to run my own practice as a woman in a then male-dominated field.

During vet school, I was fortunate to work at various types of clinics, in Utah, Florida, and the United Kingdom. I saw all types of leadership (good & bad!) as well as business structures – corporate vs. locally owned, filing away the positives and the negatives for a later date. By the time I was 2 years post-graduation I had a pretty good idea of what worked well and what didn’t, and felt that I was ready to start ‘looking into the idea’ of practice ownership.

My husband Julian was the one that found the property that has now become Canyons Veterinary Clinic, and it was such a good deal for commercial real estate at the time that we decided to dive in and make an offer. From there we worked with TWC, a veterinary-specific construction company, to make our dream into the reality it is today.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Define smooth… Haha. Anyone that has survived 4 years of undergraduate studies, 4-5 years of doctoral studies, plus internships, etc. knows that it’s never smooth! Although, I do feel like I have been very fortunate to seek out the right mentors and create relationships with the right people, at the right time; to be able to achieve this level of success at such a young age. I truly believe that working hard, and demonstrating to others that you are capable of committing to a goal and surrounding yourself with like-minded people is really what makes the struggle of life achievable.

No one deserves more credit for my success than my husband, working offshore for many years so that that I could attend veterinary school and focus on my studies. In terms of struggles along the way, we live in Utah and I am still considered a ‘minority’ as a female business owner, or at least I was at the time I applied for a business loan. Even though many vet schools are graduating more women than men, we don’t seem to pursue ownership for various reasons. In addition, Canyons is a start-up practice, which means that we opened our doors with Zero clients and have had to build our client base from the ground up.

Many current clinic owners were at one-time associate doctors, purchasing an existing business when the former owner was ready to retire. Although the financial security of buying an already profitable business is appealing, it’s not without its drawbacks, and I felt that starting from the ground up was a better way to create the type of practice I envisioned (and not hurt clients/staff’s feelings by making changes they were unwilling or unable to accept).

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Canyons Veterinary Clinic is a dog and cat-specific veterinary practice that opened on September 9, 2019. We started with myself and 5 staff members and have grown to include 3 (soon to be 4!) full-time doctors and 13 support staff members various visiting nurses and students throughout the year. Our goal is to partner with owners on their pet’s health and wellness journey, and we truly focus on involving our clients in every step of the process. We schedule all of our appointments so that we have ample time to spend discussing your pet’s needs and take the time to explain disease processes and treatments in an understandable manner.

I require all of our support staff to complete at least 10 hours of continuing education per year, through online platforms and local conferences. I believe that a great team starts by being at the forefront of best practice recommendations, and by staying current with our education we can provide the best medicine and service to our clients. We’ve definitely become known for being a bulldog-friendly practice! My husband and I have been English and French bulldog owners for years and I can sympathize with owners and their struggles to maintain this breed! This breed is also known for many dermatological problems, so I’d also say that dermatology, in general, is an area of medicine that our staff is very comfortable with.

The fact that we are locally owned has really started to set us apart from other practices. Corporate veterinary medicine has certainly swooped into the Salt Lake Valley in the past few years and many former locally owned practices have joined larger buying groups. As a business owner I fully understand the appeal and understand why this change is happening, but with the shiny new sign and technology behind the scenes, also comes some changes that are inevitable and sometimes off-putting to clients. We often have clients call just to ask if we’re corporate, and will book an appointment purely because we’ve said no.

With that said, I’m in no way making a negative statement regarding corporate veterinary care or their vet’s abilities, but purely stating that clients are hungry for an emotional connection in a world where everyone seems so distant. At Canyons there’s a sense of community that is palpable during your visit and our continued efforts to make clients feel welcome and heard, is really what set’s us apart. As a locally owned practice, our ability to run our practice as I feel is best really comes through on a daily basis.

What I’m most proud of may surprise you! Although I take pride in the medicine, successful surgeries, and care that I practice, one of the most important things to me is being known as a great boss and a great employer. My husband and I are normally the first to arrive in the morning, well before opening time and I’m usually the last to leave. For the first 2 years of business ownership, I worked 6 days a week, sometimes 7 if you count dreaded weekend catch-up work! I do my absolute best to work hard, lead by example, and create a positive and supportive working environment for my staff.

No one has ever left a position at Canyons because it was a ‘bad place to work’, but for other life reasons such as a birth of a new baby or moving out of state. That’s something that I truly take pride in and gives me personal satisfaction every day. This high-level work environment that we’ve created is what sustains our high level of customer satisfaction. Our employees love coming to work and want to be present, which shines through to our clients and keeps them coming back.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
It’s always hard to predict the future, but I do see corporate veterinary medicine as a key player. Unfortunately, starting your own practice or buying an existing one as an associate is becoming more and more expensive and difficult. Much like the crazy real estate market, an associate does not have the ‘buying power’ of a corporation and is easily outbid when it comes to an offer. And, if you’re in the position of the seller and ready to retire and enjoy your remaining years I can’t say that I blame them for taking the highest offer!

The biggest shift or trend we’re seeing now and likely to continue seeing is the awareness of the compassion fatigue and emotional turmoil this profession sustains on a daily basis. Veterinarian and vet nurse suicide is a real issue and is now finally being addressed at the general public level. Sadly, Veterinary professionals are twice as likely to take their own life compared to similar professions and 4 times that of the general public. I think most people are shocked when they first learn this statistic, especially when the general public perception is that we play with puppies and kittens all day.

The reality is that we also deal with a lot of sick pets, which includes giving owners bad news as well as helping their pets cross over in the form of euthanasia. Add on top of that, the ‘social media/google review’ nightmare after a client is unhappy with their pet’s outcome (often neither owner nor vet’s fault) that soon follows, and you end up with deep emotional scars. Thankfully, groups like ‘Not One More Vet’ exist and are working to improve the culture surrounding veterinary mental health awareness. And, I and other progressive employers are focusing on good work/life balance and mentorship in the workplace.

Contact Info:

• Email: CanyonsVeterinaryClinic@gmail.com
• Website: www.canyonsveterinaryclinic.com
• Instagram: @canyons_veterinary_clinic
• Facebook: @canyonsveterinaryclinic
• Twitter: @Canyons_Vet

Image Credits
Jonathan Cracroft